Gentlemen, have you ever wondered why you get fatigued out every so often and rather easily, have low sex drive, having difficulty in building muscles, are putting on weight, are developing male boobs (gynecomastia), is afflicted by male sexual impotency or infertility and are putting on belly fat too quickly? This could mean that your testosterone level (male hormone) may be getting a tad too low than it's supposed to be.

So what is testosterone and what are its functions? Well, Testosterone (testos for short), is also sometimes referred to as the male hormone (although women also produce them in their ovaries albeit in a much lower quantity as compared to men) which is mostly produced in the testicles. This hormone is also being produced in the adrenal glands of both genders, albeit in much smaller quantities.

This powerful hormone is an androgen which plays an important function in a man's reproductive and sexual biological systems. It also gives the guys their masculine male characteristics such as facial and body hair, muscle growth, gruff baritone voice, sperm semen production and other male physical, psychological, emotional and biological functions.
























Testosterone deficiency may be caused by a disease called the male hypogonadism. This is a medical condition when your body is not producing enough testosterone that is needed for a period of time. Although some men are born with hypogonadism, others may develop the disease in later years, usually through certain types of infections or injuries to their testicles (ouch!).

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The ongoing aging process is nevertheless the main reason and cause for the decline in testosterone production. When we were in our teenage years, we were much more physically active, we were growing physically, we had higher libidos, we were fitter and are more muscular. This was because our testosterone levels were skyrocketing at its peak back then. Thus the phrase "raging hormones" is often used to refer to younger guys who have higher sex drive.

Unfortunately, this high level of testos will start to decline when we hit our mid twenties, and will keep on dropping gradually as we journey through the unyielding passage of time. To make matters even worse, there are several other contributing factors to speed up the decline such as exposure to certain medications, chemicals in our food, both physical and mental stress, certain types of diseases, obesity, pollution of the environment, regular alcohol consumption, higher estrogen levels, smoking tobacco and so on and so forth. Now you get the picture? So the question to address now is how to have more testosterone into your system as you age.

The good news is that external environmental factors that suppress your testosterone level can be mitigated by avoiding processed food, having enough sleep, lifting weights, cutting down on sugar consumption, relieving your stress, avoiding chemicals in foodstuffs, quitting smoking, consuming alcohol in moderation or becoming a teetotaler altogether and so on. Your own natural testosterone levels can also be increased by natural means although it will never reach the high levels of our youth.

Although testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) is an option to infuse more testos into our bodies, this should only be done only upon your doctor's supervision as TRT has an oasis of negative side effects of which we will discuss later in this article.













                                   

                                      





Your medical doctor may recommend that you to undergo a testosterone replacement therapy when you are diagnosed with low testosterone after performing some medical tests on you. There are several methods to infuse and replace testosterone into your body and here are just four of them :-

1) Topical transdermal Skin Patches - These are adhesive skin patches to be placed onto the skin and let the skin absorb the slow release active ingredients in order to send them into the blood circulatory system directly.

2) Mouth Patches - Buccal mucosa testosterone is a patch to be applied to the gum or the mucus membrane areas of the mouth. It works just like the topical transdermal skin patches except that this is placed on the gums or internal sides of the mouth so that the active ingredients are to be absorbed by the mucus membrane instead of the skin.

3) Topical Gels - To be applied on the skin. You must be careful to avoid contact with other people when using the gel just in case the gel is transferred to them through accidental body contact.

4) Intramuscular Injections - Using Injections to deliver the testosterone replacements direct into the muscle tissues.

A word of caution is needed here. People suffering from cardiac conditions, certain types of cancers, sleep apnea, prostate problems, liver problems and kidney issues should not opt for testosterone replacement therapies as there may be complications involved.

Did notice that there is no oral consumption of anything in trt? The reason is to bypass the liver so as to not damage it. Furthermore, infusion into the bloodstream immediately will be more effective as it will also bypass the digestive tract system.

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If you are considering to go on a testosterone replacement therapy, do carefully consider the possible negative side effects that can be rather devastating if the TRT is not properly controlled and administered by your medical professional with utmost care and expertise. We will discuss a few of the side effects here.

First of all, TRT can become a form of addiction since it can botch up your brain chemistry functions and it also may affect your behavioral as well as cognitive functions. When you stop the therapy for whatever reasons that you may have, you may experience very negative withdrawal symptoms such as extreme fatigue, constant irritability, insomnia, sudden mood swings, erectile dysfunction, restlessness, manic depression, distressing panic attacks, and feelings of strong yearnings for having even more testosterone replacement therapies. This is very similar to that of narcotic drug addiction and this addictive phenomenon alone should be a major deterrent for you to write off TRT as an option to increase your testos level, unless your doctor thinks that your need for the therapy is in your best interest.

Along with the TRT addiction, you also may further develop an even more sinister condition known as the  testosterone replacement dependency syndrome because your body may produce less or even completely shuts down your own natural occurring testosterone production and becomes entirely TRT dependant. Since your body already have enough testos from the therapy, then it does not need to produce it anymore. This will mess up your endocrine system very badly. Terrifying enough?

Then there is the possibility of getting the disease called Polycythemia which is a medical condition when the production of your red blood cell count spikes up dramatically because your bone marrow increases the production of erythrocytes (red blood cells) sharply. It furthermore thickens your blood fluidity thereby raising the risks of getting a stroke and cardiac arrest suddenly out of the blue. This phenomena can and do kill! Still want to take the risk of getting a testosterone replacement therapy, do you?

Although there are various ways for Polycythemia to develop, one of them is from the sudden unusually high infusion of testosterone into your bloodstream usually through TRT. On top of that, several studies have indicated that TRT patients have a higher risk of cardiac arrest. Does this sounds like fun to you?

Other potential negative side effects are hair loss in men, gynecomastia (male breast development), acne outbreak, urinary tract problems, developing or worsening sleep apnea, getting an aggressive and intimidating character and so on. So the question to ask if you are considering testos replacement therapy will be is it worth the risks? Isn't it much better to increase your own testosterone production naturally? If so, then how to go about it?



























Here are 9 natural ways as to how to boost your own testosterone level. 

1) Take testosterone boosting supplements and food - Common testos boosting supplements and food are fresh farm eggs (do not avoid the yolk), oysters, cold water fishes like salmon, tuna, anchovies, herring and mackerel. Herbs or supplements like tribulus terrestris, fenugreek, Omega-3 oil and zinc may boost your production level. Read more about this powerful Testosterone Booster supplement.

2) Lead a more stress free life - Stress, anger, depression and anxiety whether they are affecting you mentally or physically will raise your cortisol level (stress hormone) and this in turn suppresses your naturally occurring testosterone production. So just let go of yourself in order to loosen up and and be more relaxed. Go for a relaxing massage, take a stress free leisurely vacation, take up yoga lessons, taiji or meditation classes, watch funny movies and laugh more. Simply choose to be happy all the time.

3) Have enough sleep - Sleep is the time when your body repairs and regenerates itself from the daily wear and tear. This is the time when your body produces a lot more growth hormones and testosterone to accomplish these body repairing and invigorating functions.

So if you are not sleeping enough, your body's own production of these hormones is vastly inhibited. Stop and think about it, what if you are not having enough sleep every other night and extrapolate this through the years? What disastrous consequences will happen to both your mental and physical well being then? 

4) Drink less alcohol - Yes, having some alcohol may be relaxing, but not too much of it since alcohol is a big suppressor of testosterone production. Worse, alcohol enhances your estrogen levels (female hormones), so the level of female hormones in your body will go up. This is one of the reasons why heavy drinkers frequently have big beer bellies and gynecomastia (man boobs).

Further more, alcohol contains high amount of empty calories. Meaning calories that have no nutritional value at all and merely add on to your body fat percentage. To make matters worse, obesity is linked to lowered testosterone levels.

5) Avoid processed food - Foods that are packaged are often processed to contain chemicals, preservatives artificial coloring and flavorings that may bungle up your natural hormonal production. Besides, why do you want these artificial harmful substances in your body?

6) Workout with weights - Building muscles, especially training with heavy weights with enough intensity will increase your testosterone level. This is because your body needs to produce more of it to repair and induce muscle growth and strength. Weightlifting can also boost your human growth hormones naturally.

Weightlifting exercise that are known to accentuate the increase of testosterone production include the barbell squat, dumbbell lunges, bench presses, chin ups, deadlifts and the one legged or single legged squat. Yes, they are all big compound exercises meaning each exercise works out several muscle groups simultaneously.

7) Lose weight if you are overweight - High body fat ratio and obesity will cause your testosterone level to plummet. Go on a weight loss diet if you are overweight. For guys, keep your body fat ratio down to below 15% and for gals, below 25%. Furthermore, being at your ideal weight can help to prevent many obesity related health issues as well as making you look better and healthier.

8) Avoid long cardio exercises - Cardio exercises may be good for your heart and lungs, but overdoing it like long distance running not only can wreck your joints, it will also be very stressful for your body and thus will raise up your stress hormone cortisol which will then usurp your muscle tissues as well as suppressing your testosterone level significantly. Some cardio exercises will be good for your heart and lung health, but do avoid prolonged ones.

9) Vitamin D deficiency - Most people are unaware of Vitamin D's contribution to maintaining healthy bones as well as helping the body to absorb important minerals like magnesium and calcium. It also helps to manage cellular development, enhances your immune system, cardiovascular and neurological functions. Research has also shown there is a connection between Vitamin D and higher levels of testosterone.

So if you want more testos, eat more Vitamin D rich food like salon, tuna, sardine, eggs and so on. Get out in the sun more often since our skin can produce Vitamin D when the skin is exposed to sunlight. Believe it or not, even people living in the tropics are often found to be deficient in Vitamin D too. If doing all of these things are not enough, then take Vitamin D supplements. It is a fact that most people do not get enough of this vitamin from the foods that they eat and you may likely be one of them.




















                                           


                            
1) How does testosterone affect hair loss in men? - Hair loss is usually caused by male pattern baldness (androgenic alopecia) which is largely genetic in nature although there are other causes too. It is generally thought that men with lower testosterone levels are more prone to losing their hair, is this true or is it just a myth?   

 

Yes, although bald men do usually have lower levels of testosterone, numerous studies showed that it is probably not true to say that lower testosterone is the cause of their hair loss.                

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It is DHT (dihydrotestosterone), an endogenous androgen sex steroid which is an unbound testosterone that causes hair follicles to shrivel up and eventually causing them to close up completely thus ending any new hair growth permanently. This is the onset of the balding process.

Our hair follicles reaction to DHT is largely ingrained in our genetic predisposition, so not everyone's hair follicles react to DHT in a similar way. In other words, if your dad is bald, then you are at a higher risk of becoming bald too as compared to those who have better genes regarding hair growth cycles although they may have the same level of DHT as you do.

2) Does low testosterone level in a man causes erectile dysfunction (ED) or male impotency? - Personally, I do  think that the correlation between having low testosterone and ED is blown way out of proportion and vastly exaggerated since erectile dysfunction can be caused by many issues both physically and psychologically. So low levels of testosterone is not the only culprit although it may be a contributing factor erectile dysfunction.

Some of the things that can lead to male impotency are having high blood pressure, diabetes, stress, anxiety, neurological problems, poor blood circulation to the penile area, bouts of depression, relationship issues, injuries to the spine or affecting the nervous system and the list just goes on and on. So your erectile dysfunction can be caused by multiple conditions and not just low levels of testosterone.

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Nevertheless, getting a healthy erection do certainly depends on your testosterone level because this male hormone that enhances the production of nitric oxide. The molecule nitric oxide is essential for sustaining a healthy and solid erection.

It goes to say then that when your testosterone level is low, it may be more difficult for you to get and sustain a hard boner, but it is a very complicated issue at play to just simply point your finger at low levels of testos when it comes to the male impotency syndrome. This is the reason why some men do have healthy solid erections even though their testosterone levels are way below the normal range indicator.

Do note however that low testosterone levels can and do play a part in medical conditions that can contribute to having ED such as in diabetes, hypertension, cardiac diseases and obesity though.

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